Events - Past

Get “Behind-the-Scenes” ASO Education Consultant, Susan Wingrove-Reed, will give a pre-concert lecture on the music and personalities of the ASO's performance of Disney in Concert: Magical Music from the Movies.

Opening our 70th season is Janácek’s dazzling Sinfonietta. With over 20 brass players, this exceptional piece is as thrilling now as it was at its premiere almost 90 years ago. Van Cliburn silver medalist, Joyce Yang, continues the celebration with her “poetic and sensitive pianism,” performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor. Closing this festivity is Respighi’s symphonic poem, Pines of Rome.

An evening of music from Messiah, La Boheme, HMS Pinafore, Don Pasquale and many more, including the World Premiere of Honeck Piano Sonata No. 1.

The ASO is pleased to present Luke in concert. A recent West High School graduate, Luke has performed with the Alaska Chamber Singers, Anchorage Opera and the award-winning West High Concert Choir. He recently performed with us in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 last spring. Luke was also the 2015 winner of the Lucian and Mary Cassetta Scholarship and was our inter for the summer of 2014. We are pleased to offer this opportunity for Luke to perform for friends, family and our community before heading off to Lawrence University to continue his music studies.

The Cheechakos, the first full length feature film shot entirely in Alaska!In celebration of Anchorage's Centennial, the Anchorage Symphony is performing a free concert for our community. Join the ASO for a screening of the silent film, The Cheechakos - the first full length motion picture filmed entirely in Alaska. Performnig a score compiled by Eric Beheim, the Anchorage Symphony brings this 1923 tale of the Alaska gold rush to the Atwood Stage.Produced by Cap Lathrop and his Alaska Moving Pictures Corporation with story boards painted by Sydney Laurence, The Cheechakos tells the story of two good-hearted prospectors who take in a young girl, apparently left motherless after a ship explosion. The regionally produced melodrama provides ample excuses for showing off the extraordinary Alaskan landscape in dogsled chases, hazardous whitewater crossings, and glacier rescues. In 2003, this film was deemed "culturally and historically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.The Anchorage Symphony is pleased to collaborate with the Anchorage Fine Arts Society and the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts in offering this Anchorage Centennial Celebration event to our community.

A $1000 scholarship will be awarded to a high school senior who displays musical talent, dedication and a commitment to continue advanced music studies. The competition is open to instrumentalists and vocalists. Applications are available online at anchoragesymphony.org and must be postmarked or emailed by April 7, 2015. Visit AnchorageSymphony.org for more information.

Hailed by some critics as the greatest piece of music ever written, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is the quintessential work of searing optimism, overwhelming joy and exalted jubilation. For his Ninth and final symphony, Beethoven set Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy" to music forever memorializing its themes of freedom and unity. The work's message of hope has been used at countless festivities to uplift and affirm humankind.

Hailed by some critics as the greatest piece of music ever written, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is the quintessential work of searing optimism, overwhelming joy and exalted jubilation. For his Ninth and final symphony, Beethoven set Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy" to music forever memorializing its themes of freedom and unity. The work's message of hope has been used at countless festivities to uplift and affirm humankind.

This 78-minute documentary explores how freedom movements (in China at Tienanmen Square in 1989, at the Berlin Wall in the same year, women living under Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile) and in Japan after the Tsunami - Beethoven's Ninth served as both battle cry of liberation, and a source of strength during dark times.

An Evening at the Ballet is a moving and exhilarating program of ballet music from Swan Lake, Firebird Suite, Romeo and Juliet and many more – featuring two of today’s most exciting dancers from the Joffrey Ballet. The synergy between dancers, conductor, and orchestra makes for a performance experience that is thrilling and engaging for all.

Get to know Your ASO! Thanks to our founding sponsor, the Atwood Foundation and the Music for My Neighbors Fund, the Anchorage Symphony is proudly performing our fifth annual FREE Neighborhood Concert at West High School. This open-to-the-public, one-hour performance is a wonderful opportunity for the ASO to venture out of downtown and bring music to more of you, our neighbors. Audience members will enjoy an adventure through varying types of symphonic music, including Overture 1812 with audience participation. Bring the whole family! This event is not ticketed, and seating is limited. Please arrive early; seating begins at 1:30pm. This event is made possible by founding sponsor, the Atwood Foundation and the Music for My Neighbors Fund.

Alaskans so enjoy the success of fellow Alaskans. In addition to the 80 remarkable ASO musicians, audiences will delight in the homecoming of Fairbanks native Dane Johansen performing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major, a work lost for nearly two centuries and uncovered by an archivist in 1961! A member of the Escher String Quartet and faculty member at The Juilliard School, Mr. Johansen has been praised for his “brave virtuosity” by the New York Times. Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 5 takes audiences on an emotional journey from despair to joyous vitality, its conclusion described by one annotator as“ a shout of laughter.”